National Experts to Discuss “Setting National Priorities: Economic Challenges Facing the New Administration” November 13 at Oberlin College

October 30, 2008

OBERLIN, OHIO –Five national economics experts will take part in “Setting National Priorities: Economic Challenges Facing the New Administration,” an economics roundtable to be held at Oberlin College on Thursday, November 13 at 8 p.m. in the Science Center’s West Lecture Hall, 119 Woodland St. The program is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Department of Economics and the Office of the President.

The roundtable will bring together economists – among them four Oberlin alumni – “who have thought deeply about the many difficult economic problems the next president will face,” says moderator Ellis Tallman, Danforth-Lewis Professor of Economics at Oberlin.
“They will discuss such questions as what to do about the expiring Bush tax cuts, how to regulate the non-bank financial service industry so as to avoid another financial crisis, how to provide health care insurance coverage to the uninsured and underinsured and slow the rising cost of health care, how to deal with looming social security and Medicare costs caused by the retirement of the Baby Boom generation, and how to reduce our dependence on foreign energy supplies and the handling of the rising cost of energy.”

The roundtable participants are:

Len Burman, senior fellow at the Urban Institute and director of the Tax Policy Center. He is an expert in public finance and modeling the effects of government policies on individuals' and firms' decisions.

Anne Krueger ’53, professor of international economics at Johns Hopkins University and formerly chief economist at the World Bank and director of the International Monetary Fund. She has published extensively on policy reform in developing countries, the role of multilateral institutions and the political economy of trade policy.

Richard Morgenstern ’66, senior fellow at Resources for the Future and an expert on environmental regulation and policy, especially economic incentive measures. He has recently focused on climate change and the design of cost-effective policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Marc Reinganum ’75, director of quantitative research and portfolio strategist at Oppenheimer Funds and a widely recognized expert in the study of stock market anomalies, particularly as it relates to small-cap stocks.